Media: Good or Bad?

What do you think of when you hear the word “media”? You most likely think of laughter, entertainment, and family. Under that joyful cover is a grim world. Media is a bad influence on teens; it can lead to death, drugs, injury, or even jail-time.

Media, when you think of that you think of music, TV, movies, etc. Even though it is all of those, it is much more. For starters, it may lead to violence. Think of video games for instance, and games such as Grand Theft Auto include violent material, and show kids that it is fun to speed, rob, or even steal; this may influence teens to try these things in real life. There are also fighting games, they can lead to fighting, violence, or short tempers in real life. Games such as Call of Duty can lead children to be careless around weapons. One child attempted to imitate a combat knife by using a steak knife, and ended up stabbing himself. Even though R-movies are meant to be viewed by 17+ only, 90% are seen by children below that age.

Media can also promote drugs. TV shows such as Jersey Shores glorifies drugs and tempts children to try them out of curiosity. Think about it, do you really want this to happen? Certain music such as hip-hop and Rap can make people normally think of drugs. This is because most rappers are drug users themselves, and set a bad example to people who listen to the music. This music is also a known source of behavior changes. The more someone listens to it, the less obedient they are. Some games such as G.T.A (Grand Theft Auto) can also promote drugs, because some in-game jobs include drug dealing. Should your children be playing this if it can cause them to do drugs?

Can’t media have a good influence too go against all these negative ones? What about some music such as Owl City, Newsboys, Angels and Airwaves, etc. Can’t these lead to good things, I mean; their songs are peaceful, or even hopeful. Then, doesn’t all music have negative effects if you think about it long enough? What about books; aren’t some of those good influences? Such as the holy books of different religions, but then, can’t those make people hate others who don’t share the religion? Everything can have both negative and positive influences depending how you look at them.

Take a stand. If this continues, more people will die, more will stray from a good like just because they couldn’t unplug the media; stop this, before it gets any worse.

Subscribe

Get Teen Ink’s 48-page monthly print edition. Written by teens since 1989.